Following the Federal Government’s decision to temporarily close the land borders, Nigeria has saved about N50 billion naira from the poultry industry since the policy took flight in October. Prof. Eustace Iyayi, the Registrar of the Nigerian Institute of Animal Science (NIAS), made the revelation during a news conference in Abuja themed “Nigeria border closure: Impact on the livestock sub-sector, food security and employment generation.”

Attributing the economical and operational upsurge in the country’s agricultural value chains to the border closure, Iyayi remarked that the policy has had a rippled effect across all value chains, with regards to supply of inputs, storage facilities, transportation/logistics, and value addition. According to the NIAS Registrar, 80 percent of Nigeria’s total feed output was credited to the poultry industry. He said, “With an estimated 180 million poultry population and annual output in excess of 700,000 metric tonnes of eggs, that is about 450 million crates of eggs and 300,000 metric tonnes of meat, one can only imagine the several hundreds of thousands.

“This is perhaps, with millions of direct and indirect jobs created by the industry in its entire value chain, in conjunction with its related ancillaries. These ranges from hatcheries, day-old chicks distribution, broiler/layer farming, broiler processing, poultry meat, and egg retail shops, crop processing, raw materials supply, feed mill operations, feed distribution, among others.” Branding the resulting effects of the border closure in the industry as an “endless web of commercial activities,” Iyayi emphasized that the huge impact could grow exponentially and be translated to more concrete economic gains and accelerated growth of the nation’s poultry industry.

The Registrar who cited that the poultry sub-sector was the most commercialized of all Nigeria’s agricultural sub-sectors with a current net worth of N1.6 trillion, assured that the industry will play a significant role in contributing to the President Buhari’s drive to create 100 million jobs. In his words, “Before the border closure, the poultry industry in the livestock sub-sector was badly hit. Nigeria consumed about two million tonnes of poultry meat annually, 70 percent of which was imported. Poultry meat was heavily smuggled into the country through our land borders”. “The imported products, often of lower quality, attracted lower prices. This led to the closure or downsizing of several poultry farms with consequential business and job losses along the poultry value chain.

“According to the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) the closure of Nigeria’s border by the Federal Government is currently reducing smuggling of chicken into the country and will further cut this down by one million tonnes annually if the effort to stop smuggling is sustained,” Iyayi added. He further stated that the drastic reduction in smuggling of finished commodities into the country would enhance the increased production of primary products that are processed to obtain the final products. Assuring that NIAS would leave no breathing space for quackery and adulteration, Iyayi further reiterated the commitment of the institute in guaranteeing food security across the country, as well as organizing the Nigerian livestock industry in line with global best practices.

culled from Agro Nigeria.